Version 2.150407

Quel the Profane now gives Cleric XP (in addition to a chance at Devotion) for striking the targets of a Crusade

Version 2.150405

Modified the Shrine selection script in the Sanctuary to avoid the OnUpdate function

BUG FIX: Corrects Sacrifice (Skull) XP

There were several scripts in the package that were no longer connected to anything in-game. I included them for people to examine, if they were curious, but they are not needed for the mod to run. This version of the package removes them.

Version 2.150403

Added MONK abilities

Added CRUSADER abilities

Added CULTIST abilities

Updated CLERIC abilities

MCM

Version 1.5

Removes General Stores dependency

Adjusts the Cremation feature to create an ash pile

The ActiveEffect which displays current Devotion now displays a number of max value

Version 1

Initial Release

Donations

Both straight donations and premium membership donations accepted

What is this?This mod developed out of a dissatisfaction with the role of religion in Skyrim. You can pray to the Divines. You can Champion a few of them. But it's really not a day-to-day part of your character's life. This mod is designed to provide an incentive to interact regularly with the Divines.

Installation:1) Download w/ NMM or unzip into your Data folder manually.2) Activate the file, and fire up Skyrim.3) If you haven't recently prayed at a Shrine, go do so.

Requirements:-All DLC and the Update.esp.-SkyUI and SKSE.-Fuz Ro D-oh (my mod will function without this one, but it helps with the Curse of Domination)

Cleric Level (CL):When you start this mod, you are a Level 0 Cleric that is 1 xp away from becoming a Level 1 Cleric. You gain Cleric XP by doing "religious" things; praying, using Cleric spells, hanging out in temples, etc. Each time you gain a Cleric level, you also gain a Cleric perk. You can spend those perks using the MCM menu.

Clerics advance in level by gaining XP. The base amount of Cleric experience needed to reach each new level is equal to the current CL times 100xp. Many Cleric spells gain some benefit when cast by a higher-level Cleric. Unlike CSP(below, which equates to raw power), Cleric Level can be conceptualized as a skill; it measures finesse and general competence as a Cleric.

Cleric Spell Power (CSP):Cleric Spell Power impacts most Clerical spells in some way. You can improve CSP using perks available both from the MONK tab and from the CULTIST tab.

Devotion (DEV):Cleric spells require or generate a resource called Devotion. Think of Devotion as the willingness of one of the Divines to do favors for you. If you have aided them in small ways, and not asked for too many big favors, your Devotion will increase. If you are always asking for favors, your Devotion will decrease. The amount of Devotion you can accumulate increases as you gain Cleric levels and there is an entry in your character's Active Effects that will give you a reading of your current vs. maximum devotion. A Cleric has a Devotion pool equal to their Cleric Level, but can increase that using perks available on the MONK and CULTIST tabs.

Blessed Amulets:Once you have the Bless spell, you can craft a Blessed Amulet at a forge out of an Amulet of one of the Divines. Wearing a Blessed Amulet will provide you with the blessing of that Divine's amulet, and also generate Devotion and Cleric XP at a regular rate... but only while wearing the amulet.

Clerical Classes:V2 of this mod significantly opened the possibilities of the Clerical character. I've tried to capture four archtypes that, through combination, could get close to nearly any type of religious character you could conceptualize. As an example, a Vigilant of Stendarr seems to pursue the Monk and Crusader paths, with perhaps a bit from the Clerical tab. Each of the Archtypes allows you to gain XP and DEV, and unlocks abilities which lend flavor to that Archtype.

-Cleric: A stereotypical priest with magical abilities, but may or may not have significant combat effectiveness. Most of the abilities from v1 have been assimilated into this tab.-Monk: The path of the monk is the pursuit of personal perfection. I've divided this into two sub-paths for Skyrim. The first is the Way of the Voice; like one of the Greybeards, you focus on the powers of the Voice. The second is the Way of the Fist, where you follow the path of a stereotypical martial artist.-Crusader: This is more like a Paladin character. You focus on melee conflict against the enemies of your faith.-Cultist: This is a means to add a dimmension of Evil or corruption to your character. Even a "good" cleric could struggle with a Vice, although darker characters would probably revel in them. There are also a few select abilities that correspond to elder-scrolls Daedric worship. Finally, Curses allow you to express devotion to a voodoo-like religion. All Curses are available with a single perk, but the Cultist will need to commit several perks into Devotion and Spell Power before seeing significant benefit. Curses also have a requirement for material components in addition to Devotion.

I haven't gone into the details of each Perk available from each Path, because the MCM supports reasonably comprehensive pop-ups regarding perk details and the screenshots give you an overview.

Misc Notes:Most spells are available via either hand, but a few are lesser powers (voice abilities). This is a change from v1, which had more restrictions.

The Cremate ability of the Bless perk destroys the corpse. This has the potential to break certain quests. The only one I found that was specifically impacted was Laid to Rest (in Morthal), where an NPC paths to a just-killed body before giving you the next stage of the quest. Because I'd just cremated the body, there ws nothing for the NPC to path to. I needed to reload a save before the premature cremation in order to continue, and cremated the body after the quest had progressed. My advice is to cremate a body only after you know it's safe to do so.

In theory, the Resurrection ability of the Bless perk could also interact with certain quests, but I haven't run into any specific quests that generate problems. Most likely, the interaction would be a quest that progressed upon a character's death. Depending on how that quest was written, resurrecting the character and re-killing them could continually reset that quest to the post-death stage of the quest. I haven't run into any specific quests where that occurred, but figured it was worth a mention. Be cautious who you Resurrect. I honestly have no idea what would happen if you resurrect General Tulius or Ulfric Stormcloak at the end of the Civil War. I don't know what happens if you think the Emperor deserves a second chance at life. If you launch into new territory, the consequences are the result of your decisions.

Similarly, Bethesda released Skyrim without a concept of the Domination ability (one of the stronger Curses). Use of this ability may cause problems in some situations. I have no clue if/when they would show up, so I recommend that you save often, and in different save slots.

By far, the most rapid way to gain Cleric XP and new perks is to take Bless as your first perk. This will allow you to craft and wear a Blessed Amulet. Once you have decided which Divine to follow, wearing that Divine's Blessed Amulet will increase the XP generation further. Additionally, Bless other NPCs whenever you see them. The Divines are smart enough not to reward you if you stand and repeatedly Bless your follower, but they will appreciate it if you bless everyone in Windhelm. You could also generate a lot of XP by repeatedly resurrecting and killing a minor bandit... at least until your Devotion ran out.

Final Thoughts and Credits:The abilities granted by this mod are largely inspired by Dungeon and Dragons character archtypes, although there are TES-lore references as well.

Due to significant complications with real life, I haven't play-tested v2 for months as I did v1. Please report bugs if/when you find them.

During the time I was working on v1 of this mod, a firewall somewhere on the internet was blocking my access to the creationkit.com website on ports 80 and 443, although I had access on several other ports. During this time, I used the Russian version of the site for some syntax questions, but would not have been able to function without the assistance of a Portugese modder who was not blocked. I greatly appreciate his help in looking things up, even though he gave me a lot of grief regarding my destruction of Undead (he was working on a Vampire mod at the time). I won't post his Skype name, but this mod probably would not exist without his help.